Root Of It All: Seth Bogart

SETH BOGART’S latest solo release seems like an amalgamation of all previous works that had come before it. The former Hunx and His Punks, Gravy Train!!! and Panty Raid man’s penchant for the eccentric is amplified in both a visual and audio sense. From the garish pink PVC suit and instillation above, to the cartoonish dream like autotune splattered all over the record.

It’s artistic in every sense of the word and while aesthetic is clearly important, the use of these almost corny attention grabbing elements often sit alongside piercingly observant takes on celebrity culture.

Before his headline show at The Shacklewell Arms this Friday, we asked Seth to write a few words about the influences he’s absorbed over the years and how they’ve come across on the new album.

(Song) Nina Hagen : Born in Xixax – The song “Nina Hagen-Daaz” on my album is heavily inspired by this song. We started by making a beat and I played a guitar riff almost identical to the one on this song. But then it kinda turned into a different thing and then the song morphed into a love song to Nina Hagen. I am obsessed w/ Nina Hagen. She’s so ahead of her time.

(Music genre) Radio Disney 1990-2005 – Another big inspiration for me, especially my song “Club With Me” is Radio Disney and 90s and 2000s kid club songs. Ally & AJ, Mandy Moore, Venga Boys, Aqua, Shampoo, Whigfield. I’m so into this kind of music – it never gets old to me.

(Video) Toy-Box : Best Friend – This video is totally insane and the song is pure candy pop that will ruin your brain. One day someone will give me a lot of money to make something like this.

(Tv show) My Strange Addiction: Eating Makeup – This episode literally inspired my song “Eating Makeup” so much that I sampled it for the record. I could not stop thinking about this for weeks. “You can kind of just imagine it coating your insides with whatever color you’re eating… it’s just like a craving of your favorite candy bar.”

(Album) Broadcast : Tender Buttons – When I was writing the songs for my album they usually started with a cheap casio drumbeat and the organ setting on my keyboard, sometimes ran thru a distortion pedal. Basically I was trying to make Broadcast songs. I discovered this album really late in the game and was really obsessed with it when Cole and I were working on this album. Especially the song “Michael A Grammar”.

(Band) Kraftwerk – I’ve owned “The Man Machine” and “Trans-Europe Express” since I was in high school and recently re-fell in love with them. Cole – who cowrote and produced the album is also a big fan of Kraftwerk. I saw them live and it was just 4 old guys in matching suits pushing buttons and their stands but I was so into it!!!

(Art) Telefantasy Studios – My friend Jennifer Juniper Stratford who collaborated w/ me on many of the videos for my album was a big inspiration for me visually. Her work with Geneva Jacuzzi is amazing. She has basically an entire 80s TV studio … all her equipment is so insane and there’s so much of it.

(Brand) Fiorucci – I’m obsessed with this news piece (commercial?) on Fiorucci in the 1980s starring Klaus Nomi. It kinda inspired my plastic look for this record. Wouldn’t you just die to go shopping there?